


Angus Makes A New Friend

by Daleth



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-08
Updated: 2016-11-08
Packaged: 2018-08-29 19:24:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8502403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daleth/pseuds/Daleth
Summary: Angus seeks a bard to learn a new skill.





	

 “Hello Sir!” the familiar greeting of the youngest member of the bureau was familiar to most on the false moon’s facility, at this point. Today, at the other end of the enthusiastic hello, was the melancholic bard. “Oh. Hey kid. Ran out of coloring books to play with?” Johann, the Voidfish’s keeper, stood in his pajamas in the doorway of his dormitory. On the outside of the door was Angus, who was currently pouting in response to the remark. Before the boy detective was able to reply, Johann cut him off with a deadpan laugh. “Haha. That was just a little moon goof. We all know you’re this, like, super smart detective or whatever. You probably were on some top secret mission for the director or something like that. You always get to run around with the big shot trio, so you must be pretty important... Just thought I’d lighten the mood with some coloring book based humor. Your pout tells me I did a bad job though.. That’s okay, I’ll workshop it and get back to you.”

“Okay… sir! It was.. It was a really good try, and I understand that you were just going for a gentle ribbing about my age! I would appreciate it, though, if you did not make such jokes! I have a hard enough time on the moon as it is! Everything is very high up, and my mage hand is not quite good enough yet to reach, and sometimes people stop and laugh at me and that is not very fu-”

 

Johann held up a hand, knowing full well that letting Angus ramble means that he would never stop. “Yeah kid I get you. No jokes about your age. I get it. I don’t like it when people make jokes about how I talk. It’s very rude. I just sound like this. It’s perfectly natural where I’m from. What are you doing here? I was in the middle of lute practice.”

 

“Johann, sir, that’s actually exactly why I’m here!” Angus paused to rummage around in his knapsack, and pulled out a wooden ocarina. “Magnus made this for me! I used to play sometimes when I was an even smaller boy, but I didn’t have much time after I started doing detective work!” The boy detective looked away with a sad smile for a moment, before turning back to Johann with his standard expression of unabashed excitement. “The Voidfish is very interesting! And I thought maybe if I learned to play better, I could communicate with it! That would be very very helpful for my mystery solving, sir! Maybe! It would at least help with the mystery of who and what the Voidfish is!”

Johann looked at the wooden ocarina, then Angus, then back at the instrument, then back at the young boy’s face of unrestrained enthusiasm. “...Okay. I have a lot of free time around here since they never send me on missions or anything. I’m normally just in my room, alone, working on music that nobody will ever here. Haha. I love helping save the world though!” Johann’s deadpan voice does fluctuate at all while he says any of this, making it hard for Angus to tell how serious that the bard was being. Deciding to just move on, he says, “Thank you very much, Johann sir! Let’s start right away!”

“Angus, kid, friend, I’m in my pajamas. It’s only two in the afternoon. I just woke up, obviously. At least let me get ready and prepare myself. I’ve never given lessons before. What if my endless talent and brilliance doesn’t just flow out?”

“Oh, umm… okay, sir! I can go get you some breakfast from the fantasy cafeteria, and I will come back here and meet you!”

“Uhh… sure. I was probably just going to do a lot of napping today anyway, I have nothing else to do.” And with that, Angus ran off to get his new teacher some of that good 2pm fantasy breakfast. When he came back Johann was no longer in his pajamas, and instead was wearing a more presentable ensemble consisting of simple black robing. The soft and gentle sounds of his exceptional lute playing wafted out into the hall, Johann’s eyes closed as he focused on the free flowing tune. Angus set the tray he had brought on a table, and waited patiently for the impromptu concert to finish. When Johann paused from his playing, the boy detective took the time to clap rapidly in a show of appreciation. “That was so very good, sir! I can’t wait to get started on our lessons! Here, here, listen to me!” Angus quickly reached into his knapsack and retrieved his ocarina. Before Johann could finish saying, “Wait I think you should let me eat bef-” very very bad, not good, horrible, unfun, unpleasant noises came from the instrument in Angus’s hand. It was not even close to music. It was not music adjacent. It could not even have been confused for music by any passerby. After 30 excruciating seconds, Angus pulled the ocarina away from his lips. “Well, sir? What did you think?”

“I thought. Angus.. That you had. Very. commendable. Rhythm. And the rest we can definitely work on. The enthusiasm is a very important part of the process.”

Sparkles lit up in the boy detective’s eyes, and he looked up at the bard with innocent wonder. “Really, sir? You think this will work?”

“Angus.” Johann paused to take a large bite of a fantasy sausage biscuit. After wiping his mouth with a recyclable moon-napkin, he finally finished his thought. “I think that I am willing and able to spend a lot of time teaching you how to never do what you just did to my ears to any other living person again.”


End file.
